Facing the edge – Bangladesh in a spiral of violence
Bangladesh – a country known for “made in” tags on clothing, for its emergence in the international sphere in 1971 after bloody liberation wars were fought, and a country which remains among the top ten most populated in an international comparison, having one of the highest population densities at the same time.
Lately Bangladesh‘s coverage ranges from positive news, such as the granting of a $300 million loan from the World Bank to take desperately needed actions in solving the widespread children’s malnutrition, to negative headlines about an almost daily presence of political violence.
The current demonstrations have begun one year after the controversial elections took place in January 2014, during which, the present opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, boycotted the elections, arguing they were rigged.
Usually a so-called caretaker government takes over the government actions during the process of elections up until a new government is founded. In 2011, then and now Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina from the ruling Awami League and her government abolished this procedure, whereupon the Bangladesh Nationalist Party announced to boycott the elections due to a missing supervising authority to prevent ballot rigging.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader Khaleda Zia and current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina have been opposing each other for decades. The two female party leaders have alternately lead the governments during this time as Prime Ministers. Following the renewed win of Hasina in the 2014 elections, the opposition declares both elections and the current government a farce, and aims to enforce a change in government by the use of street violence, a characteristic pattern in Bangladeshi politics – often enough have political quarrels been dragged to and “fought” in the streets.
When the opposition started new demonstrations this January, the police initially tried to prohibit the demonstrations but were less successful in doing so. Activists identifying themselves with the opposition regularly engage in road blockades, strikes and do not even recoil from attacking public buses or local businesses. Government forces react by arresting thousands of people they affiliate with the opposition. The combination of increasing uses of violence and the heavy-handed response of arrests moves possible negotiations and solutions further into a far distant future.
If the established parties do not realise the importance of timing, and that it is now their responsibility to react to prevent further political and economic standstill, Bangladesh might not be able to escape from the edge of destabilisation and possible civil war. International advisers urge the party leaders to find a solution otherwise none of them will benefit but lose to re-emerging jihadi groups who gain support due to the crisis, and whose aim it is to overthrow the secular order. It is for the two rival women to show a commitment towards negotiations to let democracy predominate in Bangladesh.
Photo Credit: Time
